Pick of the Paperbacks

Montaigne and fingers, skeletons and Achilles all feature among the best new
paperbacks

By Nicholas Bagnall and Holly Kyte

5:35AM GMT 12 Dec 2010

How to Live By Sarah Bakewell. Vintage, £8.99

This much acclaimed life of Montaigne reminds us that the great essayist’s wisdom is as relevant to us now as it was to those who first read him in the 16th century. The old tag applies to him if it does to anyone – nihil humanum a me puto. The sense of wonder – wonder at the behaviour of animals as well as the peccadilloes of humans – is there all the time, and in his hands it’s certainly catching. Sarah Bakewell’s biography is full of interesting details, such as the fact that as a child Montaigne was required to speak only Latin. Nicholas Bagnall

Rivers of Gold By Hugh Thomas. Penguin, £16.99

Here’s the first of three magisterial volumes about the Spaniards’ incursion into South America. They took with them across the Atlantic such items as wheat and the wheel – plus malaria and guns. According to Montaigne, the 16th-century Brazilians who went to France were amazed to find that their hosts were so small. The narrative bowls along nicely and I was never bored. NB

Michelangelo’s Finger By Raymond Tallis. Atlantic, £9.99

The finger of Raymond Tallis’s title is, of course, God’s, as seen on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and pointing the finger is something that only human beings can do (but not people who suffer from autism, it seems). Some of the book may certainly seem rather hard going, such as Professor Tallis’s section on the limitations of ostensive definition (I must admit that this had me foxed), but it’s worth persisting with it. NB

Skeleton Hill By Peter Lovesey. Sphere, £7.99

A man discovers a bone on Lansdown Hill following a Civil War re-enactment, and then promptly disappears. When the rest of the skeleton is unearthed – minus its head – and turns out to be a young woman killed about 15 years earlier, it’s up to no-nonsense detective Peter Diamond to investigate. This is a satisfyingly twisty crime thriller but to this newcomer the writing felt rather too dialogue heavy, and Diamond was not quite an intriguing enough character to trigger an addiction. HOLLY KYTE

The Woman Who Thought Too Much By Joanne Limburg. Atlantic, £8.99

Joanne Limburg’s memoir of 'obsession and compulsion’ goes into nigh-on excruciating detail about her own personal struggles with OCD – her many habits, humiliations and paranoias from childhood onwards. It’s about as intimate and confessional as a memoir about mental illness can be, and yet it is not at all a depressing read – Limburg, a poet, has a light, nimble way with words and casts a sparkling light on to a condition that affects so many people. HK

The War that Killed Achilles By Caroline Alexander. Faber, £9.99

There are some good translations of The Iliad (Pope’s being probably the best of them though not the most accurate). I suggest you read one of them before embarking on this excellent account; you’ll then be able to skim through it since much of it is a mere retelling. At school we were made to see The Iliad as a terrific war poem, without realising that, as Caroline Alexander says, it’s really an extended pacifist tract. NB